Real Salt Lake didn’t have to look far to find the man tasked with helping fill the hole left by Garth Lagerwey.
The club announced the promotion of assistant coach Craig Waibel to the post of technical director on Tuesday, where he will take over the lead role on the technical staff after the departure of General Manager Garth Lagerwey at the end of the month.
"Craig is an extraordinarily bright, successful individual whose teams have been winners at every step of his career," said RSL owner Dell Loy Hansen in a statement. "He is the ideal person to work with Jeff Cassar, Bill Manning and myself to evolve this club forward, building upon the incredible foundation established during the last 10 years by Garth Lagerwey and countless others."
Waibel, 39, was hired as an assistant before the 2014 season after previously working as an assistant in the college ranks with the University of Michigan and the University of Washington.
A well-known former MLS player who was a regular in the league from 2003-10, Waibel won four MLS Cups. His final two came with the Houston Dynamo in 2006-07, when he was a reliable and steady right back for former head coach Dominic Kinnear.
- Find more RSL coverage at RealSaltLake.com
A Portland native who played college soccer at Washington, Waibel also spent four seasons with the A-League-era Seattle Sounders. In addition to Waibel’s promotion, Elliot Fall has been promoted from RSL's Director of Soccer Operations to a new post of Assistant General Manager.
ESPN analyst Taylor Twellman reported on Monday night that Lagerwey will leave his post at RSL to take a front-office role with Sounders ahead of the 2015 season.
